In the 1930s, Berwanger was a star football player at the University of Chicago (“the greatest college player I ever saw” said broadcaster Red Barber), and in 1935 won the first Downtown (New York City) Athletic Club Trophy to the Outstanding College Football Player East of the Mississippi River.
A year later the trophy was renamed in honor of the club’s athletic director, John Heisman. The trophy itself was also redesigned to show a player doing a running block — modeled on a photo of Berwanger. The Heisman Trophy is still the most prestigious college football award.
Berwanger was also the first college player to be drafted by the National Football League, but he turned down the offer because, he said, “I thought I’d have a better future by using my education rather than my football skills.” He wasn’t terribly impressed by his trophy, either: he let his aunt use it as a doorstop. During World War II, he was a flight instructor for the U.S. Navy, and after the war started a manufacturing company, which he sold in 1992. He died June 26 from lung cancer at age 88.